LEADING HEALTHCARE IN AFRICA:
An Interview With Avon Medical’s Chairman, Dr. A.V. Elumelu
We had a chat with Dr Awele Elumelu, the Chairman of Avon Healthcare Limited, Gavi Champion for immunisation in Africa and Founder of Avon Medical, a multi-speciality healthcare network dedicated to providing highquality healthcare services with the best patient experience.
Headquartered in Lagos, Avon Medical offers an extensive range of facilities including a full-service hospital, multiple on-site clinics across three states in Nigeria, a state-of-the-art dialysis centre, a reputable pharmacy, a laboratory, and an online teleconsultation platform.
As a portfolio company within the Heirs Holdings Group, a family-owned investment company with a mission to improve lives and transform Africa, Avon Medical’s operations are rooted in the economic philosophy of Africapitalism; a private sector-led approach to Africa’s development through longterm investments in critical sectors creating both economic prosperity and social wealth.
Tell us about yourself, your background, and Avon Medical.
I am the Founder and Chairman of Avon Medical, a leading multi-specialty practice and a growing healthcare network dedicated to improving lives across Africa by providing affordable, world-class healthcare services.
As a medical doctor myself, I have worked in Nigeria and internationally, and through my experience, I have identified the poor health infrastructure, absence of medical equipment, and poor healthcare coverage as some of the challenges facing healthcare delivery in Nigeria and other African countries.
Due to this, I am focused on expanding access to quality healthcare across the continent, establishing Avon Medical and other healthcare initiatives to provide affordable, adequate, and effective healthcare services.
At Avon Medical, we are committed, not just to the medical healing of our patients, but to their total wellbeing. In all that we do, the overriding interest remains our patients. They are at the centre of and the reason for all we do.
The pandemic caused many healthcare institutions to pivot and make many changes. Can you tell us about the impact of COVID-19 on Avon Medical?
As a leading healthcare provider in Nigeria, when the world began experiencing the reality of COVID-19 back in 2020, it was paramount for us at Avon Medical to ensure that we could continue to provide the premium healthcare that people could depend on and had come to expect, even amidst the anxiety and challenges of the pandemic.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had experienced the periodic outbreak of not only the Ebola Virus but also Lassa Fever, leading us to heighten our precautions and be prepared to swiftly adapt to ensure the safety of all our patients, while securing the welfare of our frontline workers and medical staff, no matter what came our way.
Although no amount of preparation would have made any hospital ready for COVID-19, it is a testament to the merit of our process, the quality of our staff, and their dedication to ensure we are ready to take on any new developments.
The lesson we learned at Avon Medical was the importance of innovating amidst the pandemic, to ensure we made true on our brand promise to provide exceptional healthcare.
Can you share some of the innovations made by Avon Medical?
During the pandemic, one of our biggest innovations included incorporating technology to make healthcare even more accessible for our patients.
Our in-house technology team worked swiftly to create an online platform where patients could access healthcare services, from remote doctor consultations, specialist consultations, to drug refills and delivery to their doorstep and manage their health.
Our current and new patients are able to access these services online. Right now, the platform currently resides on our main hospital website, www. avonmedical.com, but we continue to leverage technology in a bid to simplify the healthcare process for our patients.
From the feedback we have received through our telemedicine platform, we have discovered a large number of patients who want to keep track of their health, consult their doctor right from their phones, have access to health tips and information from qualified medical staff, and even rate and review their doctor experience.
As a brand that listens closely to our customers and is committed to providing quality healthcare to Africans, we are currently developing a more robust telemedicine platform that will have a mobile application on Google Playstore, Apple iOS, and a web version.
This solution is in the testing phase to ensure that the application is not only a simple online consultation platform but also a trusted health partner for Africans. We encourage everyone to follow our social media pages:
@avonmedicalpractice on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn and our website for more updates about the upcoming application.
Are there any healthcare services that Avon Medical is at the forefront of?
Under Avon Medical’s network of healthcare services, we established Avon Dialysis Centre, a state-of-the-art facility providing exceptional renal care for dialysis patients.
Based in the Ikeja axis of Lagos, Nigeria, the Centre is serene, private and well equipped to deliver the best clinical and service experience with the most up-to-date technology. I also have to mention our dedicated well-certified professionals, that continue to keep up our standards as a world-class healthcare organisation and contribute to our reputation for quality care. To learn more about our dialysis centre, visit our website, www.avondialysis.com.
Our dialysis centre currently possesses a 95 per cent patient satisfaction rating from our surveys, and we are glad because it is proof that we keep our promise of premium healthcare and a stellar patient experience.
Do you have any direction you’d like to take the hospital moving forward?
We believe in making healthcare more accessible to companies who put their employees’ well-being at the forefront of their activities, especially at a time where we have a workforce that is reeling from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To provide a trusted solution to organisations across Africa, we partner with organisations to create on-site or worksite clinics providing employees with a convenient, low-cost option for high-quality healthcare.
So far, we have established on-site clinics for organisations like United Bank For Africa (UBA), Transcorp Power, Transcorp Hotels, and more, we look forward to expanding in this area.
was limited to the public sector, thereby limiting treatment and care. We strongly advocated for private sector participation to complement the efforts of the government. Once this was implemented, there was successful integration and subsequent increase in the amount of testing that was done in the country which has had a very positive impact.
AO: Have HFN participated in any projects that you would like to highlight?
PA: Early in the pandemic, we worked with other groups to support the government’s efforts. The private sector played a pivotal role in the provision of infrastructure to combat the pandemic, setting up isolation and treatment centres. HFN supported communication and advocacy efforts, effectively ensuring private sector participation in COVID-19 testing. Currently we are advocating for private sector participation in vaccine distribution and administration.
Another example is the Cancer Health Fund – there is a problem with payment for cancer treatment as in many underdeveloped countries. Most health insurance policies simply do not cover cancer care, which can be very expensive. Working collaboratively with the House and Senate Committee on Health, we successfully advocated for the provision of a cancer fund to help cover the cost of care for indigent patients.
At the recent Senate legislative committee on universal health coverage, we continued to highlight the ways private sector participation is critical to the provision of Primary Care in Nigeria to ensure that the private sector is adequately represented. The private sector also provides specialist and tertiary care. We believe that proper integration between the public and private sector will go a long way towards achieving affordable accessible, universal health care.
These discussions also highlighted another key topic amongst our stakeholders, concerning the issue of CPR. Though many people believe that lack of training is the reason why CPR is not done in Nigeria, we found out that even though the Red Cross has single-handedly trained over 10,000 people in Nigeria, the main reason people are not doing it is out of fear of arrest or accusation of having killed the victim. There is no protection for the first responder in Nigeria. We presented it at the National Assembly to protect the first responder, (aka Good Samaritan Law) enabling people to feel confident in providing that extremely critical care. These are just some of the things that we have done to influence policy and regulatory frameworks.
We have also promoted access to healthcare services through the encouragement of technology by promoting digital health using digital and mobile technology. Just last month, we held our monthly webinar, on this occasion focusing on the ‘Practical and Clinical Aspect of Telehealth for Health Professionals in Nigeria’. This was to promote the sheer broadness of the possibilities of telehealth and educate people on how this can be used with practical advice on how to carry out a telehealth conference in a very practical and user-friendly way. This is an example of how we also work on capacity building, alongside training and promoting innovation.
Another key focus is access to finance. The COVID-19 pandemic really exposed some of the challenges that we have in terms of infrastructure in our environment, and so we have begun to work with the government and various banks and other institutions to provide that access to finance. This is ongoing and we continue to work on promoting access to finance on behalf of our members since this it is not a quick fix.
In terms of capacity building, we also focus on this issue that we have with the data protection law, which a lot of medical people are not aware of. This is another area that we have conducted webinars on, with the necessary
authorities, to educate both from the agency as well as our medical and dental councils. Soon we will also be hosting a webinar on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), to enlighten our members on what this is, what it will bring to the table and how healthcare professionals across the country can benefit from this new law.
AO: What are the main improvements that HFN has identified that need to be made within Nigeria’s healthcare sector?
PA: We know that although more resources are needed, our government is looking for innovative ways of doing more with what already exists. We are keen to ensure that the private sector is enabled to fill that gap.
There needs to be a strengthening of our health systems to ensure improved health outcomes.
With the recognition of the interdependence of all aspects of the value chain, it is important that there is effective procurement and delivery of healthcare products and services to those in need. Our institutions need to be staffed by enough workers with the right skills provided with the right tools and technology to deliver adequate levels of care.
It is very important for our government to ensure that our healthcare rules and regulations, as well as our labour laws, are conducive to our members and the development of the private healthcare sector. This is something that we continue to do, not just for the practitioner but also for the patient.
Sustainable financing, particularly affordable long-term finance is what is needed and that is a big challenge. We are currently in negotiations with key healthcare institutions to try and achieve this.
Provision of the right incentives with enabling laws to protect those investments could be a way to solve both the issue of improving infrastructure and reversing the brain drain turning Nigeria into a destination within Africa for Medical Tourism. This presents a huge opportunity for us as Nigeria joins the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.
AO: How do you see the Federation developing over the next five years?
PA: We intend to grow the Federation nationally providing value to our members, in terms of capacity building, facilitating networking within our membership group, encouraging growth and providing access to finance. There is a lot of work that we intend to do to build our membership base and build the sustainability of the HFN organisation itself.
We will continue to support the government’s efforts on COVID-19 as the pandemic isn’t over. The threat of variants remains with us and we need to do all we can in this regard. Private sector participation is key to ensuring we achieve herd immunity. Nigeria also needs to become a player in the manufacturing of vaccines and other critical products to properly serve its vast population and our members can play a crucial role. HFN has advisory functions which need to be exercised at both state and national levels where we will be better able to serve.
The loss of essential skilled health care workers is an area which we need to reverse. We need to have policies and incentives developed to encourage our medical personnel in the diaspora to come back. We also aim to encourage investment in the healthcare space.
Our focus is very much on training and development. In addition, there are certain key projects that we intend to carry out to ensure that it is easier to do business here within healthcare sector.
We will continue to negotiate on the part of the private sector with the government to create favourable policies and regulatory frameworks for the private healthcare sector, resolving conflicts when they arise.
“Nigeria has fully vaccinated less than one percent of the population, and so we are saying, include the private sector”
- Dr Pamela Ajayi, President, HFN